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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg join forces in this extraordinary tale of youth, mystery, and adventure. Super 8 tells the story of six friends who witness a train wreck while making a Super 8 movie, only to learn that something unimaginable escaped during the crash. They soon discover that the only thing more mysterious than what it is, is what it wants. Experience the film that critics rave is, “filled with unstoppable imagination and visual effects to spare. It will put a spell on you.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Amazon.com

Few filmmakers have ever had a run at the tables like Steven Spielberg, whose output from 1971's Sugarland Express to, say, 1982's E.T. displayed an amazingly unforced melding of huge set pieces and small human gestures. Even at their most chaotic, they somehow felt organic. Super 8, writer-director J.J. Abrams's authorized tribute to classic Spielbergisms, hits all of the marks (Lived-in suburbia backdrop, check. Awestruck gazes upwards, check. Parental discord, check. Lens flares, amazingly huge check), but its adherence to the formula squelches much of its own potential. Appealing as it is to see a summer movie that retro-prioritizes character development over jittery quick-cut explosions, the viewer is always aware at how furiously it's working to seem effortless. Set in 1979, Abrams's script follows a group of movie-crazy kids attempting to make a zombie flick, only to have their plans cut short by a close encounter with a train derailment. As the military pours over the wreckage and neighbors start disappearing, the gang realizes that their footage contains a cameo appearance by an extremely grumpy guest star. For a film whose promotional campaign hinged so strongly on creating an air of mystery, Super 8 is a fairly straightforward melding of E.T. and Jurassic Park, albeit one featuring an oddly schizophrenic monster (he eats people… until he doesn't). Abrams makes his young cast shine (particularly when developing a hint of romance between leads Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning), while also providing a nice character arc for Kyle Chandler, as a widowed deputy who can see his relationship with his son slipping away. Aside from a few primo early jolts, however, the creature-feature aspects feel increasingly shoehorned in alongside the more assured coming-of-age elements. Abrams's film has more than enough bright spots to warrant a viewing, but its insistence on worshipfully following the master's playbook is a bit of a bummer. Imitation isn't always flattering. --Andrew Wright

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Super 8 is admittedly not a perfect film, but I enjoyed it so much, and was so taken by the characters and the actors playing them, that I didn't really mind the occasional inconsistency or lingering "awed expressions" scene.

Set in a small town in Ohio in 1979, the basic plot centers around Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), a 13-year-old boy whose mother recently died in a factory accident, leaving him with only his father, Jackson (Kyle Chandler), a sheriff's deputy who's a more than decent man but who has never known how to really be a father. Jackson's escape is burying himself in his work, while Joe's is helping his best friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) make an amateur zombie movie with the help of their other friends Preston (Zach Mills), Martin (Gabriel Basso) and Cary (Ryan Lee). But Joe's involvement becomes truly committed when Charles persuades Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning), a girl he secretly has a crush on, to join the project.

Things taken a sudden turn when, in the midst of shooting a midnight scene at the local railroad depot, Joe sees a pickup truck suddenly drive onto the tracks, directly in the path of an oncoming freight train, resulting in a spectacular crash that sends freight cars derailing everywhere and the shocked kids running for cover. The plot quickly thickens when Joe gets a glimpse of something bursting out of one of the freight cars, and when they find the driver of the pickup, badly injured, is Dr. Woodward (Glynn Turman), their biology teacher, who warns them to get away and to never speak of what they've seen to anyone or they - and their parents - will be killed.Read more ›

I've read bad things about Super 8. After watching it, I don't really understand what some peoples' issue is with it. There was an almost constant smile on my face. The characters were generally likable, the action sequences were well done (though admittedly, the train crash scene probably brought a tear to Michael Bay's eye), the story was simple yet effective, the production values were off the charts. Will this movie be heralded in the future as a classic like, perhaps, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or E.T.? No. But it's still a great movie, and a lot of fun to watch. J.J. Abrams is quickly becoming one of my favorite modern Science Fiction directors.

I saw Super 8 at IMAX today. LOVED it and want to see it again, soon! I laughed, I cried, and I jumped up out of my seat 8 times! It was a fun, fun nostalgic ride on an early summer afternoon. The late 1970's music, costumes, location, and set props were right on. Fantastic cinematography, sound design, and special affects.

Ahhhh, but this movie has heart in the story and in the acting. Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, and the new young actor who plays Joe Lamb steal the movie. This 'coming of age' story is set in a more innocent time, before middle schoolers began 'hooking up.' The rest of the kids who make up the motley film crew are believably hilarious. Each cleverly has his or her own specialty in film making. You can only imagine a young JJ Abrams doing the same thing when he was a boy.

Super 8 is not the BEST movie I've ever seen, and the ending is somewhat predictable. But it is the BEST movie I've seen in a long, long time.

Every now and then, a film comes along and reminds you of the way it used to be. Back in the eighties, blockbusters were made with heart. Everything from the acting to the direction was top-notch, especially if the film in question was a Spielberg film. Steven Spielberg is one of the best film directors in the industry. His love of the medium shines in just about every project that he has been a part of. Some of the most influential films of the past have his name attached to them, namely E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Jurassic Park. He deals with fantastical themes with a heartfelt, childlike curiosity - a definite trademark that appears in many of his films. Recently, director J.J. Abrams made a film which can be seen as a love letter to Spielberg. This film is `Super 8', and it is one of the best offerings of the summer, as well as one of the best films of the year. And, for those of you who have followed me over the past two years, the mere fact that I am glowing over a mainstream blockbuster is nothing short of a miracle.

The film opens in Lillian, Ohio in 1979, and follows a group of close-knit boys during summer break, as they attempt to film a zombie flick with a Super 8 camera. Young Joe Lamb has recently lost his mother in a steel mill accident, and as a way to cope with his loss, he vows to help his best friend, the film-obsessed Charles, complete his latest cinematic masterpiece. Together with three other boys, and his latest crush, Alice, Joe slowly begins a journey of self-discovery. Everything changes one night during a film shoot, when the boys witness, and barely manage to escape, a horrific train wreck. The kids flee the site, as the U.S. Air Force arrives.Read more ›

I loved it, too. The best thing about this movie is Kyle Chandler. I eagerly await his scenes. I just wish they had used him more in this movie & in the movie's advertisements. He is such a super fantastic actor!